Importance of design consultants' soft skills in design-build projects

Architects and engineers (AE) need to possess both hard' and soft' skills. Soft skills are important because AE interact in organizational settings instead of working by themselves. Soft skills may be grouped under conscientiousness', initiative', social skills', controllability' and commitment'. As part of a larger study on the selection of consultants by design-build (DB) contractors in Singapore, a survey was conducted to gauge whether contractors felt that soft skills are important for consultants to carry out their design tasks in DB projects. From the literature, attributes relating to these skills were identified. Data were collected via mailed questionnaire. The questionnaire requested respondents to indicate on a five-point scale the importance of various soft skills. It was found that all the soft skills, which were operationalized into 14 attributes, are important factors that contractors look for when selecting consultants. It is, therefore, concluded that contextual performance is important and relevant.